During the age of steam, the steamboats of Long Island Sound, transporting people to and from New York and the cities in New England, had developed into large, elegant vessels. These large and beautiful floating palaces, flags flying, boasted the latest in service and luxury…
Posts tagged as “Gregory Pettys”
The first I read about Sir Ernest Shackleton’s daring exploits was in the 1959 book Endurance, a New York Times best-seller, by Alfred Lansing. My mother, an avid reader said, “Greg, you must read this book. It’s a fantastic story,” and she was right.The book…
The old schooner sat at the pier forlorn and tired with two soldiers holding M1 rifles at the ready, guarding her. The town of Newport, Rhode Island was all abuzz with rumors, “What’s going on down at the dock? Did you see the soldiers? What…
There is an expression, “Wooden ships and iron men.” The expression came from a book of poetry published in 1933 by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benet titled Clipper Ships and Captains.There was a time before our time,It will not come again,When the best ships still…
Of the many ships that have been run aground off the coast of Rhode Island the story of the tanker Swiftstar has to be one of the most unusual. She was not unusual because of her design or her being stranded, in which she was…
The navigation markers on the Mystic River in Connecticut appear like apparitions out of the thick fog. They’re the only indication of where we’re going and where the channel is. The brightly colored screen of the chartplotter shows our position and heading. Fog has probably…
There was a time when I loved to roam around boatyards. Back then I was always keeping an eye out for the boat of my dreams. Perhaps an old Atkin cutter or Friendship sloop that somebody left behind. Of course, it would have a for-sale…
She was built of steel in Scotland over a hundred years ago to fish for herring in the North Sea. The proud Alvei had defied the odds and survived when most of her kind were long gone, victims of shipwreck and storm or just dead…
I jumped in the air, throwing the sheet off, almost knocking over the lantern that cast a dim light on the interior of the jungle hut. My friend, Captain Bill, and I had been trying to sleep despite the storm, the heat, and the mosquitoes.…
The period from 1630 to 1730 is considered the golden age of piracy and Rhode Island was a major haven for buccaneers. The wars between England, Holland, and France gave rise to privateers who were licensed by their respective governments to raid enemy shipping. This…